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The BDA has disputed claims that dental radiographs can accurately say if someone has reached 18 years of age.

A spokesman said: “We are vigorously opposed to the use of dental X-rays to determine whether asylum seekers have reached 18.

HUMPHREY NEMAR

Some people have accused refugees of claiming to be younger than they are

“It's not only an inaccurate method for assessing age, but it is both inappropriate and unethical to take radiographs of people when there is no health benefit for them.

I hope British hospitality is not being abused

David Davies

“X-rays taken for a clinically-justified reason must not be used for another purpose without the patient's informed consent, without coercion and in full knowledge of how the radiograph will be used and by whom.”

The Jungle refugee camp could be closed imminently after a French court rejected an appeal from aid groups to delay the clearance.

French authorities are expected to empty the migrant camp in Calais in the coming weeks and dismantle it by the start of winter.

A Lille court has rejected a request from aid groups to postpone the closure, arguing that authorities are not ready to relocate its residents.

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Mr Davies said the checks would reassure the public that the system was not being exploited

Charity groups warned that many of the migrants do not want to stay in France and may set up camp elsewhere to continue trying to cross the English Channel to Britain.

The French interior and housing ministers welcomed the court's ruling and said the camp should be dismantled before winter sets in.

Mr Davies defended his stance, saying the authorities should not be "naive" about the issue of adults trying to get into the UK.

He said refugees who had been through an ordeal to reach the UK would not be concerned about having their age checked.

"We must not be naive about this. It's no good Lily Allen turning up with tears in her eyes and all the rest of it - we need to be quite hard-nosed here," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"People are desperate, I understand that, and they will say what they need to say to get in.

"When I was in the camp in Calais there were caravans with notices on saying 'Come here, we will coach you in what to say to get into the UK'."

Migrant 'children' from 'Jungle Camp' arrive in the UK

Wed, October 19, 2016

Migrant 'children' from the 'Jungle Camp' in Calais arrive in the UK to be reunited with relatives.

He added: "People in Britain, I think, want to help children but we don't want to be taken for a free ride either by people who seem to have got to the front of the queue even though they clearly look, in some cases, a lot older than 18."

Mr Davies said he did not accept that it was "intrusive" to take an X-ray of a migrant.

"Someone who is willing to throw themselves on to an electrified rail line or jump into a moving lorry isn't going to be terribly worried about having an X-ray."

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Unaccompanied child refugees are now being allowed to enter Britain

British Association of Social Workers chief executive Ruth Allen said photographs were "not necessarily terribly accurate".

She added: "If there are issues about the age of the people who have come in this first cohort, then that can be looked at.

"The key issue that we need to be looking at is how do we bring the hundreds of children who are in the camp, who have a right to be here under various conventions and obligations; and how do we ensure that there is now a process to get all of those brought into the UK?"